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I was huge fan of the original Perfect Dark when it first came out on the Nintendo 64, spending more time on it than any other game in its generation. Let’s be honest, the N64 wasn’t exactly a top-of-the-line machine, but it had some great games. Chief among those was, of course, Goldeneye 007’s spiritual successor: Perfect Dark. Now it’s back and looking better than ever. The Studio that brought Banjo-Kazooie and Banjo-Tooie to the Xbox Live Arcade has graced us with another one of Rare’s classics. After our hopes of ever getting a port of Goldeneye were dashed (thanks a lot Nintendo), we got bumped up to first class: Perfect Dark.

My free time of late has been somewhat limited and what free time I've had has been spent playing the hell out of Perfect Dark for XBLA. Those of you who remember the glory days of the N64 with Goldeneye and Perfect Dark have no excuse not to pick this one up. Come on, 800 MSP ($10) is definitely worth the (visually updated) fun to be had with one of the best classic FPSs now available on the Xbox Live Aracade. For more classics, I recommend Doom and Duke Nukem 3D (just not Marathon - that was a mistake).

Another year, another Final Fantasy game... Well, maybe not if you only count the major releases. However, their has been at least one game released in 17 of the last 23 years, with some years seeing the release of more than two. The franchise has been on nearly every platform imaginable. One exception being PC, perhaps because it might get into a fight with WoW to see who's better at making the player grind.

It's undoubtedly a financial success, whether or not you like the series. Bungie has much to learn when it comes to prolonging a franchise well beyond standard practice as well as capturing an audience on both sides of the world.